Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-03-03

Charming Little Sketch by whittier. the
Good Ouake~ Poet

Good Quaker Poet.
| 1t was said of St. Francis, of Assissi
that he had attained, through the fer
| vor of his love, the secret of that dee,
amity with God and His creation which,
In the language of inspiration, makes
man to lie in league with the stones of
the field. and the beasts of the field
to be at peace with him. The world
has never been without tender souls,
with whom the golden rule has a
broader application than its letter
might seem to warrant The ancient
Eastern seers recognized the rights of
the brute creation, and regarded the
unnecessary taking of the life of the
humblest and meancst as a sin; and in
almost all the old religions of the world
there are legends q saints in the depth
of whose peace with God and nature all
life was sacredly regarded as the price
less gift of Heaven, and who were thus
enabled to dwell safely amid lions and
serpents.
1t is creditable to human nature and
its unperverted instincts that stories
and anecdotes of reciprocal kindness
and affection between men and ami
mails are always listened to with in
terest and approval. How pleasant to
think of the Arab and his horse, whose
friendship has been celebrated in song
and romance. OF Vogelweid, the Min
nesinger, and his bequest to the birds
Of the English Quaker visited wher
ever he went by fiocks of birds, who,
with cries of JOY, alighted on his broad
brimmed hat and his drab coat sleeves.
Of old Samuel johnson, when half
blind and infirm. cropping abroad of an
evening for oysters for his cat. OF
Walter Scott and John Brown of Edin-
burgh and their dogs. OF our own
Thoreau, instinctively recognized by
says of him: Ellis intimacy with
animals suggested what Thomas
Fuller records of Butler, the
npiologist, that either he had
told the bees things or the bees had told
him. Snakes coiled around his legs;
the fishes swan into his hand; he pulled
the woodchuck out of his hole by his
tail and took foxes under his protection
from the hunters"
In the greatest of the ancient Hindu
poems-the sacred book of the Mahab-
harata-there IS passage of exception
ii beauty and tenderness, which records
the reception of King Yudiauthira at
the gate of Paradise. A pilgrim to the
heavenly city, the King had travelled
over vast spaces, and one by one the
loved ones, the companions of his jour
ney, had all fallen and Eeft him alone
save his faithful dog, which still fol-
lowed. He was met by Indra and in
vited to enter the holy c;sy. But the
King thinks of his friends who have
fallen on the way and declines to go in
without them. The god tells him they
are all within waiting for him. JOY
ful, he is about to seek theIn, when he
Looks upon the poor dog weary and
wasted, crorehes at his feet, and asks
that he, too, may enter the gate. Indra
and thereupon the King de-
clares that to abandon his faithful and
dumb friend would be be as great sir
as to kill a Brahmin.
Away with felicity whose price is. 10 abandon
the faithful
Never. come veal or woe, will leave my faith
full dog
The poor creature, in fear and distress, has
trusted in my power to save him;
Not, therefore, for life itself, will break my
plighted word.
In full sight of heaven he chooses
to go to hell with his dog, and straight
way descends, as he supposes, thither.
But his virtue and faithfulness change
his destination to heaven, and he finds
himself surrounded by his c4d friends
and in the presence of the gods, who
thus honor and reward his humanity
and unselfish love-. G. Whittier, in
Oar Dumb animals.